Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) has been in existence since 1980. In that time, however, MMA consisted of only male fighters. The first female MMA fight was in 1995 but at that time, female fights were miles off male fights thus only a handful of people actually followed the female MMA proceedings. It was only after the emergence of Ronda Rousey in 2012 that female MMA fights became a household niche, which many followed closely. What’s interesting to note is that MMA betting is now done online and forms part of a huge online gambling niche, along with casino card games online.
A few months after Ronda’s MMA debut, many more female fighters began to come to the fore. Nowadays, there are dozens of female MMA fighters and can be said to be on par with their male counterparts. In the following short brief, we will let you know some of the top female names in MMA right now.
Pannie Kianzad (Age 26)
The 26-year-old Iranian-Swedish beauty is currently in the Women’s Bantamweight division. She fights under the Invicta FC stable. Pannie once held the Bantamweight title in 2015;currently, she is ranked number 15 in the Bantamweight division in the world and is ranked second outside of the UFC. Pannie’s trainer is Tue Kutsikitsoq Trnka. She made her UFC debut in 2012. In total, she has eight wins from 11 matches; she consecutively won her first seven consecutive fights.
Sarah Kaufman (Age 32)
Kaufman is a Canadian MMA star who has been in the business for the past 12 years. She fights under the Zugec Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts stable and is in the Bantamweight division. During her early years, Sarah was a dancer who danced everything from hip-hop to Jazz. She won the Bantamweight championship in 2010 after defeating Takayo Hashi by Unanimous Decision. In total, Sarah has had 24 fights. She won 19 of those. Besides MMA, Sarah is also an actress; she featured in the highly popular Cyborg series and is present in many other action and thriller movies.
Vanessa Porto (Age 33)
Brazilian, Vanessa Porto is currently ranked second in the flyweight division in the world. She has been involved in the MMA business for the past 13 years. In that time, she has been involved in 28 fights of which she won 20. Vanessa won the Sao Paulo State Championship before moving to the UFC and has one Pink Fight title in her UFC career so far. Vanessa’s husband, Pedro Iglesias doubles as her trainer.
Mariana Morrais (Age 21)
Mariana is still young but already boasts of an impressive CV in UFC. She joined UFC at a tender age of 16 and to date has been involved in 18 fights. Of those 18 fights, she has won 12 losing the other six. Mariana fights under the Parana Vale Tudo stable and she is in the flyweight division. She is ranked the 23rd pound for pound fighter in Brazil.
Sharon Jacobson (Age 34)
Sharon joined the MMA at a later stage in her life in 2014. She fights in the Invicta Fighting Championships and is in the strawweight division. Though she joined MMA in 2014, Sharon had been involved in wrestling at a young age at 16 when she won two national championships. Since her debut, she has been involved in seven fights, winning five and losing two. Sharon is also a sergeant in the US Army where she works as a horizontal construction engineer.
Ashley Cummins (Age 30)
American Ashley Cummins started as a Kara taker before switching to MMA in 2011. She fights under the Invicta FC stable and is in the strawweight and atomweight divisions. Since her debut, she has been involved in 10 fights, winning six and losing four. She has 2 MMA titles to her name, the 2011 XFL Strawweight title and the 2010/2011 Tuff-N-Uff Amateur Strawweight title, which she defended once. Ashley works as an animal rescuer and police officer in the US.